Shake well before using

Anna Nicole, Brittney Spears, Lindsey Lohan. Everybody knows them. They’re famous. One is dead and no one knows who the father is of that precious baby of hers. Well, we may know soon. The other two are traveling a road that is fraught with pitfalls.

Where is their security? Brittney was raised in a Christian home, and at one time in her life knew what Christian living was like… at least that’s what she said. Who knows about Lindsey? It is so sad what I see in their lives; the choices they have made,

Give a person a lot of money and loose any restrictions and there goes a walking time bomb. Jessica Simpson had the world on a string. Great job, beautiful home, the “man of my dreams” husband (her words, not mine). And she tossed it all away on temporary pleasure, listening to the call of the world becoming mesmerized by the world like some cobra charmed by the charmer. We all know who that charmer is.

But, their trials are really no different than what you and I face day to day. Sure, it boils down to choices, but if you are breathing, you have problems. We all have problems. Some people’s problems seem bigger than other people’s problems. They are not.

There are several reasons for problems. One reason is that they are common to man. 1Co 10:13 You have been put to no test but such as is common to man: and God is true, who will not let any test come on you which you are not able to undergo; but he will make with the test the way out of it, so that you may be able to go through it.

Troubles follow every human. They serve a purpose in the Lord. Yes, even those who are not Believers. Most of the time, it takes bringing an unbeliever to a place so low that the only way to look is up before it finally registers that God is the solution to the problems and cares of this world.

Troubles put a person to the sun test. In Paul’s day, potters would fire a pot and if it cracked, would put a wax in the crack which would conceal the flaw. The heat of the sun would melt the wax and the flaw would be exposed. That ‘s where the word, sincere comes from. Sun-tested. Flaws exposed. The difference is that we have the power and the choice to bring our flaws to God to be worked on, smoothed out, fixed, or skimmed off so that all the silver left after the firing is pure and reflective of our Lord.

Another purpose is the Thorn-in-the-side, purpose. Put there for us to not to concentrate on the pain of the trial but to recognize whence our grace and strength comes. It is there to reflect God’s glory to the world.

Another purpose is to be the witness by the response to the trouble. Do we react like the seed that fell in the brambles? Get all choked with the cares and worries of the world? Or do we put down our roots, confident in the fact that God is much greater than any problem or trouble? The world sees how we react to our troubles and that can be a much more powerful witness than any spoken word.

Remember, an extremely good teacher once said, “Sometimes God must shake well before using.”